Happy New Year to all our readers and supporters.  I would like to start this post by thanking all those who have supported us during 2009.  Your donations have really helped to get us through some sticky financial patches and have made a very real difference to the conservation of the wild dogs.  We couldn’t have done what we have without you.

I also want to welcome those relatively new to this blog; thank you for your interest and I hope you continue to enjoy the site over 2010.

We have very exciting plans for 2010 – ambitious and challenging, but with your support and the continued dedication of the team in Zimbabwe we believe we can meet our goals.  We plan to focus on three main branches of conservation this year; environmental education, vaccination campaigns in domestic dogs to prevent the spread of rabies and canine distemper to the wild dogs, and increased investment in anti-poaching.

Education

We aim to expand our current environmental education efforts signifcantly this year, with more schools being included in our program, teacher training workshops planned and the hiring of a local environmental education officer.  We believe environmental education is crucial to any long term conservation initiatives and that well designed, long-term and sustainable education programs are extremely important.

Vaccination Campaigns

Together with vets from the Aware Trust, we plan to carry out vaccination campaigns in the domestic dogs surrounding key wildlife areas in the south-east lowveld of Zimbabwe where we work.  Not only will this considerably reduce the threat to the wildlife from diseases such as rabies and canine distemper, it also has significant health benefits for the domestic dog and human populations.  We also plan to vaccinate as many wild dogs as possible against rabies over the forthcoming year (thanks again to those who donated funds to help buy the vaccines).

Anti-poaching

Snaring is one of the major causes of death for wild dogs in Zimbabwe.  In 2009, over 80% of recorded wild dog mortality was due to snaring.  Many other dogs did not immediately die from the snares, but carried them around their necks or legs, suffering from horrific injuries.  And it is by no means just wild dogs; animals of all species are killed in a terrible way by these indiscriminate snares, in unsustainable numbers.  We plan to help support and expand current anti-poaching efforts, and specifically to focus on keeping wild dog home ranges and den site areas free from snares.  This is the sort of thing we are trying to prevent…

We will also be working more in Gonarezhou National Park next year, with the aim of trying to understand why the wild dog population (and the lion population) is so low there.

I hope you will stick with us during 2010 and I will do my best to keep you updated with our progress in these and other areas.

With best wishes from all of us at the Zimbabwe Wild Dog Project for a peaceful and happy 2010.

Hi all, its Rafael again,

I want to take this time since I have Moreangels here with me know, to introduce herself and talk about what she is working on here at the African Wild Dog Project and maybe share her experiences so far.

As Rosemary stated in an earlier blog, Moreangels will be here for a few months working on her Master’s research. I will let her take over.

Hallo everyone. My name is Moreangels; I am studying for a Masters of Science Degree in Tropical Resource Ecology with the University of Zimbabwe. I am joining Dr Rosemary and the Lowveld wild dog project as part of my MSc research project. I will be collecting wild dog, hyena, leopard and lion faeces to determine their diets. This will enable us to see if there is diet overlap and hence competition for prey between these carnivores. This is important in determining whether lions, leopards and hyenas are a threat to the wild dog population in Save Valley Conservancy.

My first day with the wild dogs

It was to be my first time going out to live in the bush; I was full of anticipation and excitement before I even set out for my journey to Save Valley Conservancy. The day I arrived, just before sunset, Rosemary and Rafael took me out to one of the packs, the Teddy pack in Sango Ranch. This was my first encounter with the wild dogs; all my senses were alert for any sign of them. Within minutes of arriving at the den two beautiful dogs came out to gaze at us. It was amazing seeing the wild dogs for the first time, I wanted to reach out and touch them but getting out of the car was going to make they run away. All the other dogs came into view one by one and we counted eight of them. After a while they all went away, probably for another hunting adventure. It was just awesome.

Moreangels

Below are some photos I took of Moreangels drying some of her samples.

till next time – Rafael

Hi Folks, 

Its been a real busy here at the African Wild Dog project. I thought I would let you all in on my involvement and recent happenings lately. Regular check ups on our known packs is one aspect of the project. Now that denning season is upon us, the trips to the den are now anticipated with the emerging of this years pups, like the Maera pups from Rosemary’s last blog. Aside from our visits with the known packs Rosemary is involved in other projects that involve the Conservancy but may or may not involve Wild Dogs. Im involved in the data management of these projects, which include Wild Dog sightings, Blood analysis and poaching occurrences. Also there are spontaneous things that happen, that keeps things very exciting. For example the other day, we had to help a fellow researcher here at Chishakwe free a lion out of a cage, that was intended to lure Cheetahs for research. We have also tried to help in the tranquilizing of Nyala at another section of the conservancy with again another fellow researcher of Rosemary’s. So not only do I get to work with Wild Dogs but I get to help out in other projects occurring at the Conservancy which has been a plus to an already exciting job.

I thought I would share a picture of home base. Most of the work and data is managed here. It is also a nice view with the ranch horses in our front lawn at the moment 

till next time
Rafael

Hi folks,

Chishakwe Ranch (where I live) is involved in an environmental education program in some of the schools around the conservancy.  I went along with the managers today to have a look at one of the schools and help out with one of their activities (painting chairs with wild animal pictures and information). 

The chairs before being painted

It was a very interesting day.  Despite it being almost the end of February, the school was not yet officially open, because the teachers are still on strike demanding pay in foreign currency.  They have been on strike since last year, and 94% of rural schools have failed to open this year. 

However, the dedicated headmaster of this school, despite not being paid and having no guidance from the education ministry managed to gather together the children involved in the activity and we turned up to a group of 30 or so very poorly dressed but well behaved and keen students.  All of them participated with enthusiasm in the activity, despite the fact that many had never painted anything before, and the result was a colourful array of chairs for their classroom, all illustrating different wildlife species.

Nonethless it was shocking to see how basic and bare the classrooms were – not a single picture or poster or teaching aid anywhere on the peeling and crumbling walls.  And the level of English was appalling too, which is very sad because the exams are set in English, and there will be little hope of any of them passing (even if they do ever manage to pay markers to mark last year’s exam scripts).  This is not helped by the fact that the vast majority of trained teachers have left the country and untrained and inexperienced people stand in as teachers.

It worries me this, because I believe that Zimbabwe is the wonderful country that it is, and has survived so long despite the worst, in large part due to the excellent education of its people.  Zimbabweans at school prior to 1990 grew up with an excellent education system which provided them with sound morals and an honest and hard-working attitude, hence the resourcefulness of people today.  With the lack of even basic education (schools were open for a total of only 23 days last year in many places), the prospects for the future of the country are worrying.  Where will the next generation of leaders come from?

We at the Wild Dog Project are keen to do something about this, and are currently working on ways of supplementing teachers salaries so that they are able to stay in their jobs, providing scholarships to the poorest and brightest children (from primary school up to university level), and providing resources to the schools.  We’ll tie this in with enhanced efforts in the environmental education program, but really we just want to keep children in school and keep decent teachers so that the children in the area can grow up with a decent chance in life. I’ll keep you posted with our progress.

I’ll add some pictures of the chair-painting experience to this post in a couple of days,

Back soon,

Rosemary